EA to shut down more game servers

In a recent press release, EA announced that they're shutting down the online servers for several of their older, less-popular titles beginning in April. Pulling the plug on games' online components always causes controversy, but according to the publisher, it must be done to maintain success for higher trafficking multiplayer games. The list of games can be seen below:

"BOOM BLOX Bash Party for Wii

Burnout Revenge for Xbox 360

EA Create for PC, PlayStation 3, Wii and Xbox 360

EA Sports Active 2.0 for PlayStation 3, Wii and Xbox 360

EA Sports Active NFL Training Camp for Wii

FIFA 10 for PlayStation Portable and Wii

The Godfather II for PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360

MMA for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360

Need for Speed ProStreet for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360

The Saboteur (loss of The Midnight Club access) for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360

Spare Parts for PlayStation 3 Xbox 360"

The developer also commented on their decision to shut the servers down:

"The decisions to retire older EA games are never easy. The development teams and operational staff pour their hearts into these games almost as much as the customers playing them and it is hard to see one retired. But as games get replaced with newer titles, the number of players still enjoying the older games dwindles to a level -- fewer than 1% of all peak online players across all EA titles -- where it’s no longer feasible to continue the behind-the-scenes work involved with keeping these games up and running.

"We would rather our hard-working engineering and IT staff focus on keeping a positive experience for the other 99% of customers playing our more popular games. We hope you have gotten many hours of enjoyment out of the games and we appreciate your ongoing patronage."